First Frost of the Year

A couple of days ago the weather Gurus were forecasting a polar blast. Not the first this winter, and while the previous promises had all come to naught, for us at least, this last one on Wednesday evening was a ripper.  Our met station got down to +1 deg C, but it is around 4 metres ABOVE our roof line. So well above the frost line. The village has had a couple of light frosts, but as we are around 50 metres above sea level it has to be quite cold for us to feel it.

Lawns front and back were white, though as I didn’t surface until quite late …. bed far too warm and comfortable ….. there was still white in the shaded areas. And in one place that never gets sun, white all day.  But the day itself was just a perfect sunny Stewart Island winter day. Our solar system says it all …. 43 kwh production for the day. Average for August is around  half of that.

Most winters we would expect maybe 4 mornings we walk outside, and say “Yes” we’ve had a frost

Bugs

And even though Iris has been muttering about frozen fingers she is happy the cold snap does cut down the number of nasties in her gardens..